Zaward Vapor120 (ZCJ013)

The next cooler we are going to discuss today - Vapor120 - is made by a not very well-known Taiwanese manufacturer called Zaward and is shipped in a small box with a cut-out window in the front:

There are technical specifications on the back of the box. Inside the box you can find the actual cooler sealed inside a plastic blister and the following accessories:

We would like to point out Zaward TCG002 thermal paste with claimed thermal conductivity of over 6 W/m*°K.

The cooler is designed in a very simple manner: three copper heatpipes 8 mm in diameter that form part of the cooler base (H.D.T. technology) hold an array of aluminum heatsink plates, and there is a 120 mm fan attached to one of the heatsink sides:

Vapor120 measures 120 x 77 x 160 mm and weighs 684 g. there are 52 plates 120 x 50 mm that are spaced out at 1.8 mm from one another. Each plate is 0.45 mm thick. The plate edges are bent downwards on both sides of the heatsink covering them:

As you can see, everything is very simple. Although this cooler does in fact have a unique feature. The major peculiarity of this product is the heatsink plates that have stamped dimples in them:

However, these are not just little dimples in the aluminum surface, as there is a little hole in each. This is what the effect from this dimpled surface looks like schematically:

According to Zaward engineers, these dimples ensure more effective heat transfer in those parts of the heatsink that are closest to the heatpipes, which increases the overall cooling efficiency. I wonder if this solution really works they way they say it should and at what speeds.